Players React To Tiger Woods Surgery

Tiger Woods made a shocking announcement late Friday when he told media sources that he had surgery to repair his back. He will be out of action for at least six months and has set a return date for “early 2016.”

Players were interviewed immediately after the news broke. Here’s what some of Woods’ peers said:

Zach Johnson

“I hope this is the last of it. We all want him back healthy and playing well and playing a lot and hopefully this is the start of it. He’s a competitor first and he just loves being in it and that’s what we all play for. I do really like the game of golf. I honestly don’t know if I love it like I once did but I love the competition and I think that’s how Tiger feels.”

Billy Horschel

“As a competitor, you want to go out on your own terms. He wants to go out on his own terms where he gave it his best shot. He knows he can still compete and everyone out here knows he can still compete with the best of us. That’s what pushes him. This game needs him. Everyone in the game knows he’s the biggest draw in the game.”

Rickie Fowler

“I knew he hasn’t been 100%. Hopefully everything is cleaned up and he continues to move forward and this is another step in the process for him to get as healthy as possible. He still has some pretty good years left. In the Q&A, he talked about being in contention at the Wyndham and said it was cool to be back in that position and get those juices flowing again. He loves to be in contention against the best players in the world and ultimately he wants to get back to winning and he’s going to do whatever it takes to do that.”